In sales of published works such as books, newspapers, magazines, articles, games, etc. authors and creators seek to increase sales of their works typically via publishers marketing the works. Many times the author/creator, in order to enjoy a fruitful relationship with a publisher, agrees to create additional titles beyond the one they are currently seeking to market and includes publishing rights to those future works in the current contract. Author/creators with existing track records may receive more favorable terms or be in a better position to negotiate. This process favors well known authors and creators with whom the publisher already has a relationship.
Furthermore, a publisher may limit the marketing and/or distribution of a given work due to language, distribution, format, and other constraints, thereby limiting potential sales of the work. Thus, an author/creator may find themselves under contract and not receiving the best return for a particular work, or may have a work for which the contract has expired while there is still intermittent demand for the work.
In other situations, an author/creator may opt to self-publish a work when no publisher offers a contract for publication. Self-published works tend to have lower sales due at least in part to lack of marketing as compared to books published by a publishing house. A self-publishing author/creator is forced to devote more time to conduct marketing and bear the expense of that marketing, further limiting the sales streams in which the work is active. For example a self-published author/creator may forego national or international promotions, resulting in more limited sales streams for their works based primarily on local or regional promotion and sales in local or regional venues. By foregoing or limiting, for example, online venues, chain store venues, etc. the works are not active in as many sales streams.
Accordingly, there is a need to effectively determine works from these groups with a potential for increased sales if the above limitations were overcome.